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Part one deals with the growth and mutation of apartheid ideology from 1935 to the present. It explores the background to apartheid, the ideology, the implementation and functioning of the apartheid system, and reform-apartheid, the South African government's latest solution to the looming crisis. The authors point out that the apartheid system was not a unique system that sprang full-blown from the heads of Afrikaner nationalists, but was a system that built upon the segregation order which had developed along with the industrialization of South Africa following the discovery of diamonds and gold. It is interesting to note that a coherent blueprint never existed and that Afrikaner nationalists never saw apartheid as an end in itself. In fact, the apartheid system was the result of a pragmatic and tortuous process aimed at consolidating the leadership of a nationalist movement. In part two, the authors look critically at the current South African situation and explore the possibilities for a resolution to the present conflict. Unlike many others who have written on the subject, the authors take an extremely pragmatic approach. They look at the emerging trends in the political arena and in the economy, and the effects of the sanctions campaign. They also explore the possibility of revolution in South Africa, the prospects for an internationally backed settlement in South Africa, as well as effective internal pressure for change. Drawing on the available literature on other divided societies, the authors then propose a framework within which a resolution may be possible.

Front -- Contents -- Contents -- A Tragic Dilemma -- An Extraordinary Country -- An Extraordinary Professor and the 'Cape Nats' -- 'The Most Terrific Clash of Interests Imaginable': Hendrik Verwoerd's Response -- Denying Black South Africans Citizenship: John Vorster's Empire -- Moving out into Africa: John Vorster's Foreign Schemes -- PW Botha and 'Power Sharing without Losing Control' -- A Crossing Suspended: PW Botha's Rubicon -- Van Zyl Slabbert: The Golden Boy and the Black Prince -- 'The Risk of Not Taking Risks': Ending Empire -- Time for a 'Quantum Leap': FW de Klerk's Venture -- 'Paddling into Dangerous Rapids': Drafting a New Constitution -- A Record of Understanding -- A wary military -- Negotiating the NP out of power -- Concluding remarks -- Acknowledgements -- About the author -- About -- Index.

Das voluminöse Buch erzählt die Geschichte der Afrikaaner in Südafrika von der Kolonisierung des Kaps der guten Hoffnung bis zur Überwindung der Apartheid und danach indem es individuelle Lebensgeschichten mit historischer Interpretation verknüpft. Individuelle Akteure sind für den Autor, der die Afrikaaner gleichermaßen als Kolonisierte und als Kolonisatoren betrachtet, genauso wichtig wie die Wirkung sozialer Kräfte. Demographisch von anderen weißen und nicht-weißen Afrikanern dominiert entwickelten die Afrikaaner sprachenbasierte nationalistische Identität, die Kampf gegen imperialistische Dominanz mit Wagenburgmentalität verbindet. (DÜI-Sbd)

Blickt man heute zurück auf die politische und gesellschaftliche Situation in Südafrika zu Beginn der 80er Jahre, so widerspricht die ab 1990 eingetretene Entwicklung allen damals bestehenden Prognosen. Auf dieses "Wunder" der politischen Annäherung einstmals diametraler politischer Standpunkte und Interessenlagen ist der Beitrag konzentriert. Fragen nach den Gründen für den Zusammenbruch der weißen Dominanz werden nicht nur mit ökonomischen Aspekten und dem Einfluß der internationalen Gemeinschaft beantwortet. Unter soziologischen Gesichtspunkten werden auch interne Veränderungsprozesse in der National Party und der weißen Bevölkerungsgruppe analysiert. (DÜI-Spl)

The stability of the apartheid system and the Afrikaners' monopoly of power have been the subject of exhaustive scholarly analyses; by contrast, there have been few in-depth analyses of the unexpected transfer of power by the National Party government between 1989 and 1994.There is a strong tendency to present the Afrikaner leadership from Hendrik Verwoerd to PW Botha as being so beholden to the apartheid ideology and so intransigent that they missed all opportunities to negotiate a more balanced political settlement. Virtually no attention has been given to the informal attempts the leadership on both sides made to initiate talks about an alternative to white supremacy. The treatment of Nelson Mandela in the literature represents almost the complete opposite to that of the NP leaders. He has been presented as strongly committed to a nonracial democracy and a market-oriented economy. A reassessment of Nelson Mandela's career has only just begun.

The introduction of public education for blacks in 1953 and the withdrawal of state subsidies from mission schools were among the most controversial measures that the National Party (NP) government took. In introducing Bantu Education the NP government was within the broad parameters of white interests and thinking at the time. There was no strong support in either the NP or United Party (UP) for large scale state spending on black education, no real demand from employers for well-educated black workers and a general concern among whites that educated blacks would become politicised if they were unable to find appropriate work. The state's priority in introducing Bantu education was to reduce widespread black illiteracy. While Minister of Native Affairs Hendrik Verwoerd spelled out in crude and offensive terms that blacks would not be able to perform high-level jobs in "white South Africa", it is wrong to assume that this was based on the assumption of black intellectual inferiority. Bantu education always lagged far behind white education with respect to per capita spending and the ratio of teacher to pupils in the class room. After 1994, ANC (African National Congress) leaders criticised the introduction of Bantu education in ever more strident terms, suggesting that it should be considered as a destructive intervention. The article argues that, viewed against the state of education that existed before 1953, it can be considered as part-reform in that it brought primary education to a far greater number of black children than was the case before 1953. The extensive use of mother tongue education was contentious, but several comparative studies show that the use of such a system in at least the first seven or eight years of the child's education is superior to other systems. The school-leaving

• Opsomming: Op drie maniere kan die studie van geskiedenis tot nut van mense wees. In die eerste plek kan dit hulle help om `n behoorlike besef te kry van hul onderskeie afkoms en erfenis. Geskiedenis leer mense nie hoe om op te tree of suksesvol te wees nie, maar wie hulle is. Die artikel onderskryf hierdie standpunt maar ondersoek ook ander moontlikhede om die waarde van geskiedenis te bepaal. Die een is dat die geskiedenis politici kan help om hardnekkige probleme op te los wat hul wortels in die geskiedenis het. Die probleem hiermee is dat maghebbers die geskiedenis verwring om hul eie siening van historiese probleme af te dwing. Historici moet hierdie taktiek aan die kaak stel. Derdens is daar die geloof dat geskiedenis kan help om beter toekomstige ontwikkelinge te antisipeer. `n Studie van die geskiedenis kan ook mense help om meer voorbereid vir die toekoms te wees. Die geskiedenis is egter nooit voorspelbaar nie. Mense word telkens verras deur onverwagte wendinge. Die bespreking wil hierdie hindernisse in die waarde van geskiedenis uitlig.

• Opsomming: Hierdie artikel argumenteer dat Afrikanervroue gedurende die eerste twee eeue van die nedersetting aansienlik meer regte geniet het onder die Romeins-Hollandse reg as wat die geval was met vroue wat onder die Engelse regte sorteer het. Hul posisie is verder onderskraag deur die stelsel van ras-gebaseerde slawerny, toenemende segregasie in die kerk, en die belangrike funksies wat die boervrou op die plaas gespeel het. Afrikaanse vroue kon nie stem nie en ook nie ampte in die politieke stelsel of kerk beklee nie, maar hulle het hul stempel op die samelewing afgedruk. Hulle het 'n leidende rol gespeel in die besluit van talle grensboere om die kolonie te verlaat. Onder die vroue wat die Groot Trek meegemaak het, het vurige anti-imperialistiese sentimente ontwikkel, wat uiting gevind het in sterk ondersteuning vir die Transvaalse opstand in 1880-81 en die Bittereinder-fase van die Suid-Afrikaanse Oorlog. Van die laaste kwart van die negentiende eeu is die sterk posisie van die Afrikaanse vrou ondergrawe deur verreikende veranderings in die erfreg, verstedeliking, wat haar rol dikwels tot die huis beperk het, en die toenemende invloed van sowel Viktoriaanse as nasionalistiese opvattinge oor die ondergeskikte rol wat die vrou behoort te speel. Afrikaanse vroue het eers laat op die stemreg aangedring omdat hulle dit as hul prioriteit beskou het om die eerste gesin en die gemeenskap se belange te bevorder. In die eerste 250 jaar van blanke vestiging aan die Kaap het hulle `n deurslaggewende rol gespeel in die ontwikkeling van daardie eienskappe wat vandag as kenmerkend van die Afrikaner-identiteit beskou word: godsdienstigheid, `n bepaalde vorm van huislike lewe en die kultuur van die plaas- en landelike lewe.

As a social critic Breyten Breytenbach published two books of political commentary and political analysis during the mid-1980s without the opportunity of engaging with commentators at home. While True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist is part autobiography and part searing comment on prison life, End Papers is a more detached dissection of the major political and cultural issues confronting South Africa. Breytenbach was now one of the respected international voices on the political crisis in South Africa. The violent break-up of apartheid had changed Breytenbach's social criticism. In the place of the earlier rejection and denunciation had come a willingness to engage and reason with his audience. The Dakar conference of 1987, which Breytenbach co-organised, offered an ideal opportunity for this. The conference was given wide publicity and was seen by some as the catalyst that broke the ice for the negotiations between the government and the ANC two and a half years later.

• Summary: Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the main architects of "Bantu education "and the idea of independent Bantu homelands, is one of the most controversial politicians in South Africa. Hailed and almost venerated by his supporters, he was seen by Albert Luthuli and other African nationalists as the architect of their "calamity". In popular journalism he has been likened to Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe. Yet Verwoerd was no conventional racist. Recent research has shown that as a Stellenbosch lecturer he rejected the theory that some races were genetically and biologically superior to others. When he went abroad he was not attracted to Nazi thinking but by the ideas of American social scientists who advocated "social engineering" to avoid future conflicts. His main aim in introducing Bantu education in 1954 was to expand mass education on a primary level and to deflect black job aspirations from the cities to the homelands. His plan to impose a rigid form of apartheid was ultimately thwarted by high economic growth and much more rapid black population growth than had been anticipated.

The debate over modern South Africa has been dominated by the question whether continuities between apartheid and segregation existed. Much of apartheid was a tightening or an elaboration of segregation, but there were also features that made it unique. The one was the systematic classification in statutory groups of the entire population, including people of racially mixed origins, which resembles the rule of the Cape by the VOC or Dutch East Company that distinguished among legal status groups. The other distinctive feature of apartheid was its concern with the rehabilitation of subordinate communities up to the point where they could become nations. Using the terminology of German romantic nationalism and mission doctrine rather than that of British indirect rule, apartheid substituted culture and ultimately nation for race.